Control systems are utilized in a wide variety of different applications. For example, control systems are utilized in conjunction with one or more power generating devices in power plants and/or in process plants. Control systems typically include a controller in communication with one or more components of the control system via one or more communications channels. However, conventional control systems are not designed to handle voluminous amounts of data communications. As such, only limited data may be communicated and/or processed.
Further, continuous “analog” signals in power converters are sensed for regulation, slow protection (e.g., thermal), and fast protection (e.g., desaturation, overcurrent) uses. Typical signals include phase currents, phase-neutral or phase-phase voltage, DC link voltage, di/dt reactor voltage or current, temperature, etc. Historically, analog signals have been routed to control electronics using copper wires, either at native signal levels or after passive attenuation. Voltage disturbances and “noise” have always been problematic in certain settings (e.g., power production environments) because remote analog electronics exist in a different common mode (CM) voltage environment from the quantities being measured. This is particularly an issue where low-latency level comparisons must be made for instantaneous protection because common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) deteriorates at higher frequencies and instantaneous protection is typically required around the switching events that produce high CM transitions. There are no convenient means for galvanic isolation of continuous analog signals across bridge potentials (Viorm>1 kV). As voltage and power levels increase, the physical size of converters, separation between bridge and electronics, and common mode levels also increase, further exacerbating the issue. Instrumentation of bridge feedbacks at sample rates higher than the frame rate of the bridge control continues to be very helpful for development and root-cause analysis (RCA). One bit oversampled Delta-Sigma Modulators (DSM's) have typically been used to convert analog bridge signals into the digital domain. The single bit stream can be conveniently transmitted across a voltage isolation boundary using an optocoupler. Legacy products have used VCO's that behave much like first-order DSM's and have processed signals using “VCO counters” which are sinc^1 filters. Later products have evolved to using higher sample rate second-order DSM's and are moving toward higher order sinc decimation filters. Medium voltage converters are exceeding the Viorm capabilities of optocouplers to send signals between bridge potentials and earth ground.
Therefore, systems and methods are desired that overcome challenges in the art, some of which are described above.